US, Jamaica advance easily in Olympic relay

nepal 
Even with Usain Bolt nowhere to be found, two of the five fastest 4x100-meter relay times in history went up on the Olympic Stadium scoreboard Friday night.

Jamaica ran the preliminary without Bolt but with 100 and 200 runner-up Yohan Blake and finished in 37.39 seconds. A few minutes later, an American quartet anchored by 100-meter bronze medalist Justin Gatlin did the Jamaicans a hundredth of a second better.

The U.S. time of 37.38 broke a 20-year-old national record (37.40) and was the fourth-fastest overall.

The teams race for the gold medal Saturday, with Bolt in the lineup for Jamaica, looking to make it 3 for 3 after his golds in the 100 and 200.